Homebrewing Beer Is a Revolutionary Act

His arguments don’t even touch on the federal excise tax. He’s more interested
in how home brewing, world-wide, promotes small-scale industry (and household
industry), and the economic power of women. It’s a side of homebrewing I’d
never really examined before.

I’ve recently put the finishing touches on a first draft of the new edition of
NWTRCC’s
pamphlet on “Low Income / Simple Living as War Tax Resistance” — here’s
our sidebar on home-brewing:

The Indian independence movement boycotted goods that the British colonial
occupation monopolized and taxed, such as alcohol. Gandhi’s independence
campaign encouraged Indians to produce their own salt and cloth, both to
withdraw financial support from the British monopolies and to encourage the
development of domestic industry.

Rebellious British colonists used a similar tactic during the American
Revolution — making homespun cloth in patriotic “spinning bees” and
boycotting British monopoly tea.

What would be a good equivalent of the patriotic spinning bee for today’s
anti-imperialists? What commercial transactions does the government tax that
it would have a harder time taxing if they were the fruits of household
industry rather than the marketplace?

One good candidate is homebrewed beer. The federal excise tax on beer comes
to about a nickle per bottle. By homebrewing, you can resist this tax, learn
a craft, and drink good beer — all legally! It is a winning proposition any
way you look at it. Imagine “brewing bees” or “drinking bees” at which tax
resisters belt out songs of liberty with gusto!

Wrote one homebrewer: “I like the symbolism of home brewing tax-free beer.
Gandhi’s campaign had a value that went beyond its bottom-line
pounds-and-pence figure. Spending time spinning cloth was a way of
consciously participating on a daily basis in the resistance, and wearing
the homespun cloth was a way of broadcasting your commitment to those around
you. Besides, brewing beer is fun and when you’re done you’ve got beer!”

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